Not at all, the “biggest change” was with fast charging, but Li-ion batteries hate being at 0 or 100% all the time and fast charging makes it too easy to ovrtcharge to 100, and I’ve only got 1 device that can do “fast charging speeds” (over 9w). Most of my electronics are a mix of type c and micro to type a. A c - c cable is like with my fast charger is overkill for my application and is inconvenient when the vast majority of charging bricks and plugs have type a charging.
It’s pretty convenient. Now I can take my soldering iron and my power tool battery (with SN USB-C adaptor) and solder wherever the fuck I want
USB-C has changed the entire game. It’s a completely different game now. It’s like Yahtzee vs Uno. Or like Call of Duty vs Microsoft Flight Simulator. Remember playing freeze tag or dodgeball? Well it’s not like that anymore. Now it’s like playing soccer.
Really hasn’t been much of one. I still own devices that charge from MicroUSB, a lot of peripherals are still USB-A, there hasn’t been any significant movement by the industry overall to move everything to C, so mostly it means I just need to carry more cables.
Nitpick, there are no devices that charge with an USB-A port. USB-A is the side that supplies power, the side receiving power is USB-B.
USB-C did away with the distinction.
And how would you describe a wired keyboard or web cam with a hard wired connection to the device and only a USB-A end?
Your nitpick is not warranted. He never said charge with A.
True, but keyboards, mice, wireless adapters etc. haven’t moved to C yet. I use PCs and desktop peripherals and industry adoption if USBC has basically stopped 1/4 of the way in.
I don’t think I’ve had a single USB-C cable/connector/socket fail yet. Which can’t be said of Micro-USB.
But other than that, meh.
The stability of Mini USB I liked most. Plug a PS3 controller in 100 times and it always seemed solid. Micro USB was flimsy, but I wish the would have done usb-c like the lightning connector and made it solid. I would think it would last longer that way, but I never owned an iPhone so I could be wrong. Those could be more prone to snapping, like palm trees vs pine tree.
I broke 1 mini USB on my Blue Yeti over a decade ago, but no port would have been able to survive that torque, lol. Other than that, it’s usually rock solid
I’ve seen multiple people snap lightning plugs. Never seen a broken USBC plug yet
I work in a school with a 1 to 1 Chromebook program. I see them pretty regularly, mostly they are just bent hard and stop working, but I’ve seen some pretty impressive destruction.
Yeah, nothing’s unbreakable. I once saw a kid shove a whole ham sandwich into a cd/optical drive. People do weird stuff. It probably would have worked afterwards too if someone cleaned the mustard off the lens. Never checked, as even back in 2006 it was rare to put CDs in school computers. The age of flash drives has already arrived.
Game changer? Literally not at all. It’s a bit better.
The good things:
- It really is an advantage over normal USB, that I don’t have to trun the plug three times while trying to connect it, as it can be plugged in either way.
- I find the extra protection also cool, so in case you accidentally try to plug in something you are not supposed to, it just simply won’t work instead of, I don’t know, supplying too high voltage or something.
So far it caused a lot of headaches though:
- Way too often I found myself in a situation, where I couldn’t use some devices, because I didn’t have the necessary adapter. This issue should be temporary though, so I’m not complaining.
- Some cables are not compatible with some devices, and it can be really confusing. Before I knew this, I was certain that a monitor and a laptop of mine weren’t compatible for a long time, until someday I read about this and tried it again with a different cable.
- In most cases this is not an issue, but rarely I find that the USB type-c plug is not as robust as a micro USB for example. On my girlfriend’s Samsung S8 it always slipped out, so the contact was terrible, while a micro USB plug does have some clamps to properly attach. Again, in most cases the type-c plug is clicking in properly, so it’s not an acute problem.
A big one. No more brittle micro usb, which would eventually become loose and start falling out when charging. Being able to charge my laptop using my phone charger is also good.
That’s impressive, how many watts is your phone charger? I would have assumed you could do the opposite but thought the laptop would have laughed when you attached a small stream to it.
I use an old phone charger, when working outside my home. My goal when using it is to keep the charge/uncharge ratio positive. Tho when at home my devices share a 100W charger.
How do you know if the cable is a C type of USB?
The letters correspond to the physical connector. The rectangle one everyone knows is A, B is the square connector usually used with printers and other accessories. C is a small, oval connector, and the first one that can be plugged in “upside down” because it’s symmetrical.
C is now common on phones and tablets and other smaller devices. If the connector is ovalish but even smaller and weirdly shaped, that’s one of the mini/micro USB variants and you need to find the right cable to match.
(If you have a USB C cable and i won’t fit into the oval connector because it’s too big, that’s Lightning made by Apple before C existed and is only found on their devices. You have to get a cable with Lightning on at least one end.)
Thank you
You look at the ends that plug into stuff
Oh do they have the letter printed on it?
No? Ok thanks.No, but they’re very visually distinct from USB-A, USB-B, Mini USB, and Micro USB.
Last week I found out that there are off-brand batteries for my DSLR cameras that can be charged directly through USB-C so I don’t have to pack a different charger for every camera. Let that sink in!
Overall pretty great, in a pinch I can charge my laptop on a Nintendo Switch power supply. Now if I could just upgrade the last few remaining Micro-USB and Lightning devices without spending a fortune…
Not at all, its slightly more convenient.
If all cables were created equal then it’s kind of a big deal that laptops can now charge via USB-C. Proprietary chargers can suck my ass.
Not much. There was USB 3.0 even before the USB-C, so bandwidth-wise it’s hasn’t been a game changer. Over the years I’ve used a bunch of phones and other devices with Micro USB Type B and I’ve had one or two cables fail, but not at the connector. In fact the mouse I’m still using has Micro USB for charging and it’s been fine.
Not at all a game changer, for me.
I mean, it’s just another and one more type of cable. Sure, in theory it’s simpler than many various cables and it’s even less stupid than the previous USB types, but it’s still a mess.
At least, for non-geek me, those cables are a mess as I need to be able to distinguish between the exact same cable to find which one is USB-C or Thunderbolt, between the various versions of USB-C itself, and then between USB-C that comes with or without power delivery, and with what power limitation? And then, despite USB-C supposedly being a standard there are still too many cables that just won’t work with certain devices because reasons.
Add to that the many USB-C docks (and dongles) that work… more or less reliably and more or less as marketed (even more so under Linux, but those issues exist under Mac and under Windows as well).
Older cables and ports were cumbersome, and thick and whatever but, as far as I’m concerned, for the most part they just worked like they were supposed to. And I never had an issue knowing which cable to plug into which port as they all looked, you know, different.
Nowadays, I have to label each one of my USB-C cable with some masking tape so I can identify it in a glimpse without wasting my time trying them all one by one.
Edit: some clarifications.
Total game changer. Plug all my peripherals into my monitor. USB C from my monitor to my work laptop. After work I plug it into my home desktop. Also just having one charger and one cable for my phone, steam deck and laptop is amazing especially for work trips.
Not much of a game changer for me. I have a couple portable battery bricks that use micro USB to charge, so I just plugged lightning and USB C adapters in those ports and now lug around lightning and USB C cables as opposed to lightning and micro.
These ‘between cycle’ points of time where half the old stuff still has old ports, adapters help for me
